From a writer’s notebook

Diary

Pages from a working novelist’s notebook — on books, on writing, on the days in between. Not always tidy. Not always about anything in particular.

“The date does not know what I am up to. But I do rather like a day in the year that has been agreed on for setting a thing down…”

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“The version of me that has just finished a thing cannot be trusted within a mile of it…”

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“I typed a line that I knew was the last line, and I sat there, and the fridge came on. That’s what finishing sounds like…”

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“Some houses just need emptying before they’ll let you think in them again…”

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“Children see only the mother for a very long time, and then one ordinary evening they catch sight of the person…”

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“That first smell of rain on ground that’s been begging for it is the closest thing I know to being forgiven…”

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“A new moon is for the things you start quietly, before anyone can see them well enough yet to have an opinion on them…”

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“Meditation isn’t emptying your head. It’s just staying. Sitting there while your head does what it does, and not getting up…”

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“I think heat like this makes me superstitious. I wouldn’t defend it if pressed…”

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“I keep thinking about how easy she makes it sound. Not the writing. The doing…”

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Curated by Georgia Clare, author of Quote Therapy — now in paperback & Kindle.
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